ςѲሁክɖ Ѳቻ ፕዘ૯ Ѳር૯ልክ
by Baguette Me Not
Summary: For as much as the world changed up above, the depths of the ocean were already yet to be fully discovered. Perhaps it should've stayed that way. (Transcendence AU)


**Based on this prompt here: post/161461771133/i-have-seen-so-little-content-concerning-the-deep**

* * *

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚊𝚞𝚝𝚢 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚌𝚎𝚊𝚗,

𝙵𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚜 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚠𝚘𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜,

𝚅𝚊𝚜𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚢𝚘𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

~𝙼. 𝙻. 𝙱𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚎𝚜

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"-Happy birthday dear Kimly, happy birthday to you!"

A chorus of cheers and whoops resonated across the back lawn, family members — ranging from her sister, to that one guy she had a faint inkling could have been her second cousin — all sending cheery looks her way. She flushed under the applause as she turned her attention towards the cake, now presented before her by her mother.

The victoria sponge was, admittedly, a little disappointing. Chocolate cake tended to be her go-to for birthdays, and never ceased to be delicious. Her mother always made them by hand — a family recipe, she'd tell her — everytime decorating it with a new, ever better design. But after the oddly large amount of rsvp's this year? They'd opted to play it safe, having fairly vivid flashbacks to that one time which will not be mentioned (chocolate allergies had to _suck_.)

Eh, her Mum made it. It'd be sure to taste nice.

Kimly leaned across the table, elbows propped up, one of the others nudging the cake closer in her direction. All eleven candles had been evenly placed around the perimeter, an angry red against the cool blue of the fondant icing which, to finish it off, had been decorated with an array of fondant-made flora.

The heat of the flames tickled her face, which was absolutely the reason why she felt a trickle of sweat drip down past her cheek. Certainly not because of all the eyes on her. Nope. No pressure. This was just a cake, afterall.

"Make a wish, already!" She heard one of her younger cousins — Jay maybe? — call out, only to be hushed by his mother who pulled him up onto her lap. Kimly grimaced.

"I'm trying, okay! I'm-" _Think, think_. "Oh, just give me a second!"

"We will sweetie," Came Aunt Karen's soothing, yet earnest voice. "Just don't take _too _long. It's a bit windy out — we'd hate if all your candles blew out before you got the chance to."

"Yeah, yeah." She waved a hand vaguely in her aunt's direction. "Just gotta think of a wish that isn't generic."

Kimly squeezed her eyes shut and began to inhale.

_I wish, I wish…_

_I wish..._

It wasn't as much of a sound that startled her, more rather a feeling of sorts, as if the whole entire world had — how to put it? — _shifted_ somehow. One minute things had felt a certain way, the next it buzzed, tingling with a newfound energy that most surely hadn't been there before.

Kimly almost choked out her breath, creaking open an eye, two eyes, to take a peak at what she had missed.

She wasn't the only one who noticed it.

(Who knew her Grandfather could scream in such high an octave?)

"Ummm, what is-" Kimly furrowed her brow and craned her neck upwards, looking in the direction many of her family members were openly gaping in. "_Oh_."

Oh indeed.

She hadn't quite known what she had expected — had been too caught up in the moment to consider thinking, really — but _this_? It took the cake (so to speak. Her cake was still on the table, though more or less forgotten.)

"Should I mention that I _didn't _wish for a pegasus?"

* * *

Her family had (rudely) abandoned plans for her birthday, instead choosing to cram everyone into the living room whilst the news droned on — something about a Transcendence?

Whatever that meant.

Kimly was startled from the screen to feel someone prodding at her shoulder. She shrugged her attacker off, only for her face to split into a grin as she noticed who it was.

"Staceyyyyy." She playfully prodded her older sister back. "What've you got there?"

"Wouldn't you-"

"Who's got the remote?" Grumbled her Grandad from the nearby couch. "The volume needs to go up. I can't hear."

Stacey rolled her eyes before tugging on Kimly's hand. She tilted her head towards the door. "Let's head into the hallway first. This room's too crowded."

The pair of them exited through into the hallway, shutting the door behind them with a simple _click_. Then Stacey turned to look down at her, a — as Kimly suspected — wrapped gift outstretched in her hands, repeating words of 'happy birthday' printed all over it.

"I wanted to give this to you earlier but- ah, well. Just open- yep, like that," Stacey chuckled as Kimly took the box-shaped gift from her, tearing the paper from it without so much as thinking twice. It let out a satisfying _rip_, revealing a sleek dark box, the lid immediately being lifted off and placed underneath. She fished out a paper slip, just one of four within.

"Hang on… is this- _eeek_!" She found her face splitting into a grin, letting out a squeal of excitement as she waved the paper at her sister. "You _did _as well. Tickets! To AquaWorld!"

"Today's just filled with surprises for you, huh?"

"Yep!"

With that, Kimly launched herself at Stacey, throwing her arms around her and wrapping them both into a tight, crushing embrace.

"Thankyouthankyoutha- whaaa?" Kimly tore herself from the hug, running her spare hand through her hair in a desperate attempt to return it to its original style. The look she received was apologetic, though she didn't miss how Stacey's eyes sparkled with a hint of — was that _mirth_? "Stop ruffling my hair!"

"What? Worried I'll mess it up?"

"Yes!" She jutted out her lip, pouting as she fixed her with a sidelong glare. "I actually brushed it this morning. It took _ages_."

"Wouldn't have guessed," The older woman teased, reaching out to ruffle her hair yet again, only for Kimly to lean backward, just missing the oncoming swipe.

"You get that hand away, or I'm hiding your AquaWorld ticket so it'll just be me, Mum and Dad."

Whatever words Stacey was going to retaliate with died on her tongue. Her hand withdrew, slowly, from Kimly as it made its way to the crook of her neck, her playful smile dimming as it became-

_Oh._

Sympathetic. That was the only word that came to mind, really, whenever she looked at her like that. It was the same expression Stacey took on when she said stuff like 'how much does that knee hurt?' or 'I won't be able to make it to your swimming competition' or 'I'm going away for a bit, Kim.'

So it really shouldn't have been a surprise what came next.

"Listen… about that. You're-" _Sigh_. "You're going to have to go there without me."

Words stuck in her throat. She'd seen the news coming a mile away, but it was something else to hear the solid proof. Still, Kimly pushed on. "But _why_? You were the one who booked the tickets! And the date here — _see_? It's the whole month until it expires! Surely you can go?"

"Wish I could." A shrug. "But work called up. I'm sure you can have fun on the trip without me- and hey! Here's an idea: bring one of your friends instead. I'm sure they'd love to go. Who's it? That Connie person. You could take them?"

"Connor," Kimly impassively corrected, before immediately switching back to the subject. "But why's work calling up? You said you had time off! Tell them to get someone else."

"Kim, listen to me," Stacey continued in the same calm tone as before, "Something has come up. Something _big_. The radars are going completely berserk and I'm betting you it's to do with this 'Transcendence' jig. I mean, I got the call not forty minutes after it happened!" Kimly shot her an incredulous look, to which Stacey responded by pinching her temples in a 'what have I done to deserve this?' kind of way. "Riiiight, how do I explain this? You want to be a marine biologist too, don't you?"

Was that even a question? Of course she did. Travelling the oceans like her sister did would have been a dream come true.

Kimly nodded, albeit hesitant. She had no idea where Stacey was taking this.

"That's what I thought. And the job is all about discovery, you know? So these alerts, they can't be coincidental. What's happened up here must have happened down below. Think of all the new species' we could identify!"

"So you're going to be away for a while? Again?"

Neither sister managed to meet the other in the eyes.

"Yes," Stacey voiced at last, somewhat strained, "I'm going to be away for, uh- _a while_. Longer than usual, that is."

"Oh."

"I'll remember to video call you, of course. And, heh, you can tell me how the trip to AquaWorld went?"

Somehow the smile Kimly gave didn't feel all that natural on her face. Did her sister notice? "Only if you tell me how your trip goes...I guess it's alright. Umm, we still up for anything when you come back?"

"Well… I might have _another _idea up my sleeve. But for now? It's your birthday. And we're _both _here. You up for something other than-" Her eyes wandered to the doorway. "Watching T.V?"

The grin wasn't so difficult to fake anymore. "Am I? I thought you wouldn't ask!"

Something tickled at her, that day after the fateful Transcendence as she watched her sister take a step out into the driveway. The feeling gnawed at her, left a space deep enough in the pit of her stomach that it may as well have been a black hole. An endless pit of nothingness.

It made little sense, really. It was a sunny morning, the world was abuzz with magic, and she was fairly certain that was a bunch of pixies that had flown by. Things, quite honestly, were looking up for her. The day was practically glowing with a golden hue, saturated in light like an over-filtered photo.

… But _Stacey_.

She didn't know when they would next see face to face. For all she knew, it could be _weeks_ or _months _or (she suppressed a shiver) _years_! _They may never even see each other again!_

No, no, no. She was just being what her mother usually said to her. Overdramatic. Again. The pair of them would most likely see each other in a month or so when Stacey was back in the country. And there were always the calls that she could look forward to.

But until then...

"Stacey?"

Aha! That caught her attention. The woman froze, suitcase in hand as she whirled around towards her.

"Yes Kim?"

"I..." She swallowed down on her words, so many things yet to say left unsaid. "Just good luck, that's all."

It wasn't like she'd need it.

* * *

**Not my first TAU fic, but at last the first one I'm happy with posting. Can't believe it's been over a year since I've been interested in this AU…**

**(Slow updates. I'm not the fastest typer in the block.)**


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